Help On First Audio Setup - Gaming - Page 4

What model receiver? What model speakers? What model sub?

So run RCA cables from the Titanium HD's RCA output to the RCA inputs on the Yamaha receiver and set the Yamaha to 2-channel audio.

Plug the Q701s into the Yamaha (the Titanium HD can send headphone surround sound thru the RCA outputs, to the Yamaha).

See how the setup sounds.

Not necessarily. It depends on where you or not you are using an AVR and its room correction or bass management features. Those features involve digital processing that will convert the audio back to digital to do the adjustments and then convert it back to analog again.

If you can provide the make and model numbers of your equipment, it's much easier to discuss optimal setup configurations.

What is happening is the TiHD (Titanium HD) receives a digital audio signal thru the PCI-E slot.

The TiHD processes the signal into a 2-channel analog audio signal (for headphones).

The analog audio signal is then sent thru the RCAs to the Yamaha receiver (RCA), the Yamaha then runs the 2-channel analog audio signal to the receiver's (amplified) headphone jack.

The TiHD-s DAC chip (PCM1794) is the only digital to analog converstion, in the signal chain.

I have no idea on how to use headphones and a separate sub-woofer at the same time.

Not really sure it's worth the hassle to try to hook everything up that way.

The HTR-5830 has DSP sound field modes available for use with the headphone jack (see your manual). If you use them, it would definitely be converting the analog input to digital in order to implement the effects and then back to analog again. Whether or not you are getting pure analog direct to the headphones when not using that feature probably depends on whether or not the tone controls are still active even in regular stereo mode. In many AVRs the tone controls are a digital attenuation. Some receivers have a pure direct mode that bypasses the tone controls and all DSP; some do not.

If you aren't getting pure analog direct, you might as well just run optical to the receiver since you are using the DAC in it anyway.

As far as a sub with headphones, the only way I would know to do that would be to get an AVR that has left/right preouts and connect them to a headphone amp. Yours doesn't have that feature. Even then it would be kind of a pain to configure. Switching the output from the speakers to the preouts would probably not be too bad, but then your subwoofer crossover would be set for your speakers, not your headphones, and you'd have to change that too each time.

If it's the feeling of the bass you miss in the headphones, you could always get a tactile transducer and an amp to power it: http://www.parts-express.com/cat/tactile-transducers/18

Attach it underneath your chair. The Aura might do the job. Need a 4 ohm capable amp to power it.
Edited by cel4145 - 2/11/13 at 5:56pm

There are three different ways to connect the Titanium HD to the Yamaha receiver.

You can run an optical cable from the Titanium HD to the Yamaha.

You can run an analog signal, RCA to RCA

You could run analog from the Ti-HD's headphone output to the Yamaha's RCA input, but I would guess(?) the RCA to RCA would offer a slightly cleaner signal.

 

Personally, I would think the RCA to RCA is the best choice (for headphones), as chances are the Titanium HD's DAC (PCM1794) is a fair bit better then the Yamaha's DAC chip.

And I would assume the Yamaha has a least one (or more) setting(s) that would bypass the Yamaha's DAC, like the "Pure Direct Mode" maybe(?).

 

The digital optical connection would be best for a 5.1 (6-channel) speaker setup with the Yamaha

 

Or just get an external headphone amplifier and connect it directly to the Ti-HD's RCA output.

I looked through the manual for that receiver and didn't see one (could have missed it). That's an older model, so there may not have been one.